30. Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Sylvie
“When I pull in and close the garage, you two grab her and get her inside,” Terrance instructed his men. “Jolie, you get the rope, a plastic tarp, and my toolbox on the workbench there. I want to find out what happened to Samuel before she’s too far gone to answer questions.”
His words sent me into a state of terror and determination. When Terrance stepped out of the vehicle, everyone else got out too. As soon as I heard the last door slam, I sprang into action, kneeling and yanking at the mesh barrier. Terrance really should have duct-taped my hands behind my back. A few snaps held, and I shook in frustration and panic.
One more hard yank and the mesh came free. As the back hatch opened, I vaulted over the back seat and scrambled toward the driver’s side. I had to hit the start button before Terrance and the electric key got too far from the vehicle, or I was royally fucked. My ribs slammed into the side of the passenger seat as Earl started yelling and Jolie screamed.
A passenger door opened, and hands grabbed my hair, but I slid my butt into the driver’s seat and used my fingers to jam the start button. My head flew back as whoever had my hair gave it a hard yank. Ho-ly shit, that hurt. Tears sprang in my eyes, but the headrest stopped my head from flying too far back.
Thank God and Jesus, the vehicle started. Blindly pushing the gear shift into reverse, I slammed my foot down hard on the gas pedal.
The garage door was still closing, and the SUV lurched and smashed into it, causing a horrible screech. The momentum scraped off the asshole who’d grabbed my hair, but fucking Jolie opened the front passenger door and jumped in. She went after my face with her long neon green fingernails, and I hunched away and rolled my shoulder up to block her, keeping my foot firmly on the gas pedal.
The back of the SUV smashed through the garage panel, and it came down on the front of the vehicle. I kept my foot on the gas as Jolie scratched the hell out of my neck and shoulder. The panel slid off with a loud crash. She would have gotten more of my face, but her fingernails couldn’t penetrate the duct tape. I breathed through my nose and tried not to hyperventilate. If I passed out now, I was dead.
I let go of the steering wheel long enough to swing my elbow at her a few times. She yelped and ducked down, and I hit her shoulder and chest before getting her square in the nose. Her nose gave a satisfying crunch, and she shrieked and let go of me.
Terrance bellowed and slammed his hands against the driver’s side window as we flew past him. I jumped but didn’t let up on the gas. A thump sounded behind me, and the tires rolled over something substantial. I’d just backed over Ducky. It felt too meaty to be Earl.
The Escalade bumped up onto the curb across the street, and I let off the gas when the back end smashed into a hedge, barely missing a tree. Frantically, I worked to get the gear shift into drive. My hands were sweaty, and my heart raced in my chest. I breathed frantically through my nose, trying to get enough air. The stringent smell of tequila hit me, and I glanced down and noticed an open bottle, a lighter, and what looked like a bong in the cupholders.
Getting the vehicle into drive, I stomped on the gas again, yanking the wheel to the left to keep it on the road. The back tire rolled over something, and I heard a hoarse shout of pain. I hoped it was Terrance, but thought it was probably Earl’s foot.
Using my knee to steer, I reached up and tugged the tape off my mouth, wincing as a few strands of hair came with it. Then I sucked in sweet, glorious oxygen. Jolie whimpered in the passenger seat and eyed me malevolently as her nose bled. Taking my hands off the wheel again, I swiveled, made two fists, and hit her in the side of her temple as hard as I could, like a battering ram. It was awkward, but her head snapped sideways and struck the passenger window. She slumped in the seat, looking dazed.
Bringing my wrists to my mouth, I started feeling for the end of the duct tape when a bullet hit the sideview mirror. My knee jerked and the vehicle lurched to the side. Another bullet went through the open hatchback, punching through the driver’s seat, and striking me across the top of my shoulder.
“Fuck!” I yelped, pain and adrenaline ripping through my system. The roundabout to the neighborhood entrance loomed fifty feet in front of me, and I hunched down, praying no more bullets found me. I should have prayed for the SUV too. A back tire blew, and the vehicle swerved sharply to the left. Then another tire blew.
I wasn’t going to make it out of the neighborhood, but maybe I could attract enough attention to keep Terrance from dragging me back to his house for a torture, rape, and kill session. Wrestling the wheel, I hit the gas one last time and plowed into the faux Roman fountain in the middle of the landscaped roundabout.
The vehicle hit the curb with a thud and came to rest with the front tire up on the ledge of the cement fountain, shuddering to a stop. Thank Jesus the airbag hadn’t deployed. Jolie groaned in the passenger seat as I glanced in the rearview mirror to see Earl limping toward me with a gun in his hand. Terrance was nowhere in sight, but I knew he was out there somewhere.
Grabbing the liquor bottle next to me, I frantically looked around, searching for any kind of weapon. On the passenger-side floor, a huge, half-empty chicken bucket sat with greasy napkins on top. I took a big swig of tequila, then grabbed a few napkins and quickly stuffed them in the top of the bottle. My trapezius muscle screamed in protest, and blood trickled down the front of my shirt, but I thanked God and Mary that I could still move my arm.
Setting the bottle back down, I picked up the lighter from the cupholder and gave it a few flicks before it finally lit. Turning, I noticed the window was still up. Fuck! With the lighter still lit, I struggled to roll the window down, burning my finger in the process. I couldn’t swear out loud or I’d lose the liquid in my mouth. But I really wanted to.
Earl ranted as he shuffled toward me. “You ran over my foot, you fuckin’ cunt! I’m gonna enjoy hurtin’ you, and then I’m goin’ after that little piece Eightball and Carver plowed. Now, get outta the motherfuckin’ car.”
He limped up to the vehicle and reached for the door handle as I lit the napkins. Swinging the flaming bottle out of the window, I spewed liquor in his face, stuck the flaming napkins into it, and then dropped the bottle by his feet on the fountain ledge below.
The bottle broke, and the liquor lit up nicely. Earl screamed and stepped back, but his greased-back hair caught, and his head went up like a match. I stared in stupefied amazement, shocked that my half-assed idea had worked.
The flames rolled back toward me, following the dying liquor stream, but I jerked back.
The pungent smell of burning hair hit my nose, and between the tequila and the stale scent of fried chicken, my stomach lurched again. Earl windmilled backward, dropping the gun, then started flailing around as he screamed. I crawled into the back seat, stepping on Jolie as I went, then worked my way out the open back hatch.
Fear and awe coursed through my system like a syrupy cocktail as I looked around at the strange mess I’d created. Earl dunked his head into the fountain next to the Escalade, and cried piteously. My cousins were never going to let me live this down.
Hobbling toward the trees and shrubs lining the sidewalk, I stopped behind a trunk in the landscape strip to catch my breath and figure out how I could get ahold of Drakos or my cousins.
The adrenaline was ebbing, and I felt so weak that I slid down the tree trunk, probably leaving a bloody trail behind. Seconds later, I heard footsteps pounding on the pavement, and I froze. Terrance stopped maybe ten feet from where I sat, frantically looking around, and then he stared, wide-eyed with clenched teeth, at his new, expensive Escalade propped drunkenly against the fountain with Earl moaning next to it. A split second later, headlights shone at the entrance, and a car pulled into the roundabout, then stopped abruptly. I saw Terrance hesitate, then pull a gun from behind his back.
A second set of lights shone from the opposite end of the street, and Terrance swore viciously before ducking out of sight. Seconds later, I heard his heavy steps running back the way he’d come.
People were getting out of their cars, talking loudly to each other, and pulling out their phones when a minivan screeched to a stop. Fenn stuck his head out, frantically searching the wreck.
I awkwardly crawled to my feet with my hands still duct taped in front of me and panted out a half-laugh. “Over here,” I called as I limped toward him.
Fenn’s head snapped in my direction. He and Kilian leaped out of the minivan as a black Range Rover screeched to a halt beside them. I watched Drakos get out and run toward me while scanning the area.
Fenn shook his head when he saw the state I was in. “You took ten years off everyone’s life, and you look like the last survivor in a horror flick. But you’re a goddamn Houdini.”
While Fenn berated me and Kilian kept an eye on Earl, Drakos elbowed his way past them and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I flinched in pain, and he pulled his hand back and looked at the blood on it, then gazed down at me, searching my face. “Did you get shot?” he growled.
“I think I did.” My knees finally collapsed under me, and Drakos caught me as Fenn’s eyes went wide. I’d never seen him look this freaked out. “Fuck, Syl. Please don’t die on us.”
Drakos stood with his hands on his hips while Xander’s sister, Gia, cleaned and stitched up the laceration on my shoulder where the bullet had left a deep gouge. She’d also cleaned and disinfected the scratches on my neck and cheek, and prodded the large, fist-sized bruises on my face and torso. It hurt to breathe too deeply, and I wondered if Terrance had cracked a rib.
Gia worked as a nurse, and I found out she moonlighted for The Firm when someone got hurt or shot. If the injuries weren’t life-threatening, it kept the police from being notified. We’d come to Ezra’s house after they picked me up since it was closer to Henderson.
Fenn paced at the end of the bed in my old bedroom. “How in the fuck did you let yourself get kidnapped?” I tried to roll my shoulder and then abruptly stopped as pain spiked through me. “Really? All you’ve got is a half-shrug? I’m not saying you’re stupid, but it’s like your good sense goes on vacation sometimes.”
He probably had a point. My raw and swollen wrists throbbed, and Alexa and Luna had carefully worked the duct tape out of my hair. I hadn’t told Gia about my banged-up knee yet, and there wasn’t much I could do about my bloody clothes until we were finished here. I looked and felt like three-day-old roadkill, and probably smelled like it too.
Kilian shook his head. “You have a knee-jerk reaction to protect vulnerable people. They used it against you.”
“I know. Believe me, I know, okay? But did I die? No.”
“You should be praising her for how gutsy and smart she is,” Luna chided them. “There was one of her, four of them, and her hands were duct taped. Yet she managed to get away. Give her some credit.”
Fenn held up his hands, then came over to kiss my forehead. “You were pretty fucking amazing. Now, quit putting yourself in danger.”
Kilian patted my uninjured arm before they left. “She’s right, and we love you. Get some rest.”
Alexa walked in as the cousins filed out. “I’m taking off, but I need my keys first.”
I stared at her, not understanding. “Your keys?”
“Yeah. I shoved them in your back pocket when you were unlocking Drakos’s garage door. They have a tracker on them.”
My eyebrows went up, and I reached around to retrieve the small keyring, and stared at it in awe as tears filled my eyes. “Thanks, Lex. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you when you told me to stop.”
Drakos growled low in his throat, but I ignored him.
Alexa took them and patted my thigh. “It’s okay. You’re alive.”
I sighed tiredly as Gia continued to stitch my shoulder. Alexa paused as if gathering her nerve, then blurted out, “I’m so glad we found you in time because I love you and Luna like sisters, and thank you for being my family.”
Luna sucked in a breath behind her. “We love you too, Alexa.”
I opened my arms to both of them, even though my shoulder twinged. “Love you too.” Alexa’s left eye twitched, but I raised my eyebrows and curled my fingers a few times in a “come here” gesture. Neither she nor Luna were completely comfortable with hugs or physical affection, but we came in for an awkward group hug.
When they took off, Gia finished up while Drakos silently watched me with his arms crossed on the other side of the bed. He made me nervous and twitchy, so I focused on her.
Gia resembled Xander, with her beautiful bone structure and quiet, dark blue eyes. “You’re lucky you didn’t get hit in the neck or subclavian artery,” she murmured, indicating those two areas. Drakos’s eyes narrowed even further.
I hadn’t known Xander had a sister until Luna told me Gia was the one who had figured out what was going on inside Bitter Creek Ranch Academy all those years ago. She finished up, patted my arm, and went to clean up.
I finally gazed up at Drakos and sighed. “I know. I’m a bleeding-heart idiot, I could have been killed, and it was stupid to go outside.” He raised his eyebrow at me. “Fine,” I drawled out. “Until this thing gets settled, I won’t go anywhere alone again, and I’ll be nicer to Milo.”
“You scared the absolute, ever-living shit right out of me. Never ever do that again,” he growled softly.
Alexa told me before she left that they’d tracked me to Henderson, and Drakos was just getting off on the Green Valley Parkway exit when the call came into dispatch about a wreck involving a black Escalade SUV on fire in a neighborhood close by. The SUV hadn’t actually been on fire, but Drakos hadn’t known that.
“You look like a steam kettle ready to explode. It’s not healthy for you to keep it inside like this. Come on, let me have it.”
He shook his head and finally came toward me, sitting on the bed. “You can't save them all, and since you don’t seem to give a fuck about your own safety, I’ll do it for you. If I had my way, we’d be getting married tomorrow, and you’d start wearing a tracking device just like Luna does. If you take one goddamned step outside without me, one of your cousins, or a bodyguard glued to your fucking side before we find and neutralize Terrance, I will heat up your sweet little ass until you can’t sit for a week.”
He breathed in and out like a mad bull by the time he finished his little speech. I stared up at him, fascinated by the bulging vein in his neck and his flaring nostrils.
I reached up and laid my palm against his cheek. “Do you feel better?”
“No,” he snapped.
“You were worried about me.”
He leaned forward and laid his forehead on mine. “You’re a fucking genius, and you can obviously take care of yourself. But no, Sylvie, I wasn’t ‘worried’ about you. I was fucking terrified. Those men planned to rape, torture, and kill you. Terrance is a one percenter, and he doesn’t give one shit about the law. In his eyes, you killed his only son, and you’re a woman. The man is also a misogynistic psychopath. Now, are you going to work with me, or do I need to sedate you like Roman did to Luna?”
I smiled lazily as warm, happy bubbles fizzed in my chest. The man wouldn’t be this angry and grumpy if he didn’t love me—or something close to it. The sad knot that had wrapped around my heart since he proposed loosened a little in my chest. “You’re welcome to try , fancy fuck boy.”
“God, I detest that nickname.” He bent down and ran his lips along my hairline.
Sighing loudly, I slumped. “I’ll think about it.”
The glare slid off his face, and a slow, naughty grin spread across his lips. Gawd damn , the man was beautiful. He looked just like Satan tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden. Even with all my injuries, I melted as he slid his fingers into my hair and pulled my lips to his. A soft whimper escaped me, both from my sore scalp and the lust swamping my system.
“You have two days,” he murmured against my ear.
“Two months. And I said I’d think about it.”
“One day,” he countered.
“For such an expensive attorney, you suck at this negotiation thing. Ten days.”
He inhaled sharply. “Five, and that’s my best offer.”
I bit his chin. “Fine.”
Gia cleared her throat from the doorway, and we slowly broke apart. “I’ve never heard a proposal quite like that, but let me be the first to congratulate you. Sylvie, call me if you have any complications.” Her lips twitched as she walked out.
I turned to Drakos. “How do you feel about having Carl live with us? He’s grumpy, loud, and he sheds. You have more invested in your suits than most people have in their retirement, so I don’t ask lightly.”
Drakos smirked. “That’s what lint rollers are for. And Carl hates Roman, which makes me like the little demon even more. Are you ready to go?”
I laid my head on his shoulder and relaxed against him, not caring if I got blood on his pristine white dress shirt. His comforting, delicious scent and steady heartbeat helped the last dregs of adrenaline and fear float away.
“Thank you for coming for me. When I was lying in the back of that SUV, listening to them talk about how they were going to… Well, anyway, I wondered if I’d ever see my family again. I worried that I’d never see you again, and I decided to accept your asinine proposal.” Heat rose in my cheeks, but I pressed on. “And not because it would give me added protection or we’d have spousal immunity.”
His eyes glinted wickedly and he carefully squeezed me to him. “You scared the shit right out of me. I want to get you clean, then curl up in bed and just hold you for a few hours.”
My eyes glistened and I sniffed. “That sounds perfect.”
He stood and kissed the top of my head. “I also need to figure out a way to fuck you without jarring any of your injuries. Let’s go home.”